Hold on to Sixteen
Hold on to Sixteen is the eighth episode of Glee's third season, and the fifty-second episode overall. This episode aired on December 6, 2011. The episode features the return of Sam Evans at McKinley and New Directions and The Troubletones participation at Sectionals. Quinn plans to get Shelby fired for sleeping with Puck after learning their affairs, after Rachel is suspended from school, New Directions' needs more members and Mike's father starts to let his son live his dream of dancing due to Tina's words. It was directed by Bradley Buecker and was written by Ross Maxwell. Plot Quinn plans to get Shelby fired for sleeping with Puck. She wants to reclaim Beth and sabotage Shelby's rival glee club (The Troubletones) prior to Sectionals competition. Rachel insists that she will ruin Beth's life if she takes her from her true mother, Shelby and Mike during the performance of Red Solo Cup]] New Directions needs 12 members to compete, but only has nine with Rachel suspended from school. Finn and Rachel travel to Kentucky to ask Sam to come back to McKinley High for Sectionals. Unknown to his parents, Sam is dancing at a strip joint to help pay family expenses; he wants to return to McKinley, and his parents agree to let him go. He is then seen in the choir room performing'' Red Solo Cup with the other members. At the end of the performance Santana walks in and reads him a welcome back note from her notebook, stating that she has written one just in case he was ever coming back. In the hallway, Quinn attempts to reconnect with him to help her reclaim Beth, but he rebuffs her. For the two final performers they need to be able to compete, New Directions recruits its bassist and drummer to instead sing and dance. Kurt and Blaine are at the Lima Bean when Sebastian interrupts them and joins them at the table. The Warblers revealed to have won their Sectionals. When Blaine goes to get more coffee, Kurt warns Sebastian to stay away from his boyfriend. Tina is appalled when Mike tells her that he will not be applying to dance schools as planned, but has instead applied to Stanford's pre-med program to please his father. When she tries to argue with him, Mike is angered and tells her if she doesn't understand maybe they should break up. Tina tries to intervene with Mike's father, but he remains convinced that dancing is too risky a path for Mike. After a brief argument in the choir room between Blaine and Sam, which resulted in Blaine storming out angrily, Finn walks in the McKinley gym to find Blaine boxing a punching bag, and he explains that he was in the Fight Club back at Dalton. He confronts Finn about the problems Finn has with him, to which Finn admits that he was jealous of him. The two make up. Sam approaches Mercedes in the hallway, and they have a conversation about their past relationship. Sam states that he is going to fight to win back Mercedes. Tina goes to Mr. Chang's office and hands him a bootleg copy of McKinley's performance of West Side Story. Mr. Chang wants nothing to do with it. Tina reveals that Mike is doing what he hates just to appease his parents when he could be doing what he loves. Tina also reveals that she wants to be a performer some day, it's what she was born to do just as Mike was born to dance. She then turns to Mr.Chang and discusses honor with him, and how Mr. Chang does not honor Mike's gifts. Sectionals this year are being held in the McKinley auditorium. Before the competition the Troubletones come to see the New Directions and tell them they are welcome to join the Troubletones after they lose, much to the New Directions' offense. Also Mike is angry at Tina for talking to his father. The Unitards—led by Harmony—perform first. Quinn leaves the auditorium to tell Principal Figgins about Shelby and Puck, but Rachel stops her and urges her to warn Shelby first. Quinn confronts Shelby, who tells her that she is resigning from McKinley and apologizes to her. The Troubletones perform next, singing ''Survivor/I Will Survive. New Directions then performs ABC, Control and Man in the Mirror, and Mike and Tina are surprised to see Mike's father in the audience. Afterward, he tells the couple that he now understands that dancing is Mike's passion, and Mike should apply to the best dance schools. At first Mike is disappointed because he missed the deadline, but Tina revealed she applied for him, causing Mike to proclaim his love for her in front of his father. At the judging process, the Unitards are crowned in third place, which Harmony is surprisingly proud to receive. She and Kurt talk before she walks off stage. Kurt believes Harmony is very talented, to which Harmony smiles at and reveals that she is only a sophomore so she's only going to improve. The Troubletones are then crowned second as New Directions are crowned first. The crowd slowly disperses and the group are left alone on stage as the lights dim. Quinn decides not to reveal Shelby's secret for Beth's sake. Outside Figgin's office, Quinn thanks Rachel for stopping her from doing something she would have regretted her whole life, and the two become friends. Quinn then convinces Rachel and Mr. Schuester to promise to feature the Troubletones members in all future New Directions competitions if they agree to be in the group. Quinn then manages to convince Santana, Brittany and Mercedes to rejoin the New Directions, and the three of them, along with Sugar, join New Direction's performance of We Are Young in the auditorium. The Troubletones show up in the auditorium and during We Are Young they start to sing and dance with the New Directions. Quinn waltzes Mercedes onto the stage, Sugar jumps onto Artie's lap, Rachel takes Santana by the hand and Brittany jumps into Rory's open arms. Eventually Will walks in and is surprised, yet happy at what he sees. Finally united and ready to take on the challenges ahead, New Directions celebrate with a massive group hug as the song ends. Songs Guest Stars Special Guest Star *Idina Menzel as Shelby Corcoran Guest Cast *John Schneider as Dwight Evans *Chord Overstreet as Sam Evans *Damian McGinty as Rory Flanagan *Vanessa Lengies as Sugar Motta *Keong Sim as Mike Chang Sr. *Tanya Clarke as Mary Evans *Lindsay Pearce as Harmony *Grant Gustin as Sebastian Smythe Co-Stars *Guilford Adams as Tickles the Clown Others *? as Brandy Englebert *Joan Schwartz as Dorothy Saunders *Scott Henson as Bassist *John Lock as Drummer Absent Cast Member *Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester Trivia *The title refers to Sam's favorite lyric in John Mellencamp's song, Jack and Diane which he said to Quinn: "Hold on to Sixteen as long as you can. *The backdrop used during'' We Are Young, is the same one used in ''Dog Days Are Over. This was also sung after Sectionals in Special Education, to celebrate their win. *This is one of three episodes submitted for the 2012 Emmys, the other two being "Asian F" and "Yes/No". Errors *Quinn states that she is 17 in this episode. However she also says "I'm an adult" and six episodes ago (I Am Unicorn) Shelby said "you're 18.". However, it's possible Shelby was a year off of Quinn's age. *A cameraman can be seen during New Directions performance. Source *A cameraman can be seen during the scene between Finn and Blaine. *When Tina goes to see Mike's dad, when she is about to leave she picks up the DVD and then when she turns around again the DVD is sitting on the desk again. *In We Are Young, Brittany and Santana are seen holding hands, but the next shot they are not. Also, Brittany goes from standing with Rory, to hugging Mike then back to standing with Rory. This action repeats twice. *Right before the competition starts, Will says that The Troubletones are on in five minutes, but the Unitards go first. *During Red Solo Cup, the Drummer is stacking cups and is on the second to last row with only one more cup to put on and standing up. A few shots later, he is sitting down again and he has a lot more cups to put in the tower. Also, when Puck is pushing Artie to the cup tower, a leaning cup can be seen but in the next shot there isn't any cup present. *During Control, when Blaine is singing at the beginning his jacket goes from being unbuttoned to buttoned back to being unbuttoned, all in the span of about 15 seconds. *During ABC, The Troubletones can be seen standing up but after Sam does the body roll, Mercedes is sitting down and so is the person next to her. But the next time the camera is on them, they are standing up. *In the scene where Finn and Blaine are talking while Blaine is boxing, the punchbag is to the left of Blaine's body, Blaine however is punching forwards *In We Are Young, Kurt is seen walking towards Mercedes, Santana, Brittany, and Sugar as if to greet them with Artie, Rory, and Quinn but when the scene cuts to them walking away, Kurt is not seen with them. Also, when Brittany and Rory are seen hugging, and Rory spins Brittany around. A second, or two, later, they are seen putitng each other's hands over each other's shoudlers, and holding hands with their spare hands. This is done impossibly fast. *During the beginning of Red Solo Cup, when Sam sings "If you prefer drinkin' from glass", first Quinn is shown drinking and suddenly she isn't drinking. Also Mike raised his left hand (maybe to sing "That's true") but then his hand isn't there. *When the New Directions are clapping and celebrating their win you can see Kevin McHale's Let It Be tattoo. Quotes Gallery Tumblr lu1zdtualY1qjb4w1o1 400.jpg cxtml.jpg|Chord and Cory after recording 2q5pj.jpg|Dianna Agron recording at choir room.jpg kevin - choir room.jpg 333px-Chord_overstreet_is_back.jpg On the walls of MH.png Lindsay with rival show-choir.jpg|Lindsay Pearce in dance rehearsals for Episode 8 with her rival show choir gleeset11.png|Sectionals - Behind the Scenes ogvsz.jpg|New Directions girls sectionals outfits tumblr_lus38lmUHM1r6nrbwo1_500.jpg|Behind the scenes of Naya at sectionals. tumblr_luvsh4C1aJ1qh0jufo1_500.jpg j1U8JvbaDDBe4.jpg jbbMImCA5KZbos.jpg jbykVn6mNM4XEt.jpg jmKtjIvfy0pe1.jpg|The Troubletones 77620b1f5d8ffc1ba107c3f6a6adce4a.jpg|Behind the scenes|link=http://www.examiner.com/tv-in-phoenix/glee-bts-set-photos-picture#slide=40251346 normal_308GLEE_Ep308-Sc11_004_28129_wtmk_wtmk.jpg Normal 308GLEE Ep308-Sc11 161 28129 wtmk wtmk.JPG normal_308GLEE_Ep308-Sc11_302_28129_wtmk_wtmk.jpg EpHOTSPhoto.png|Santana welcomes Sam tumblr_lvj7vjWd011qbi5wyo1_500.png ab92c6fa10ad11e180c9123138016265_7.jpg|Lindsay with the rival choir. tumblr_lvj8r9KrpF1qfcdl6o1_r1_500.jpg tumblr_lvj8r9KrpF1qfcdl6o2_500.jpg tumblr_lvj8x48g7T1qbi5wyo1_500.png tumblr_lvj89qr1Vl1qbi5wyo1_500.png Booty.jpg|ND boys Dancing for competition(includin band boys) Nd.jpg|New Directions Performing at Sectionals schock.jpg|Finn and Rachel reaction after seen "white chocolate" Sam stripper.jpg|Stripper Sam - White chocolate Unitards.jpg|Unitards UTT.jpg|TT and the Unitards watching New Directions troubletones at sectionals.jpg|TT performing at Sectionals tumblr_lvjv0kRXE61qla9d4o1_500.jpg tumblr_lvjv0kRXE61qla9d4o2_500.jpg tumblr_lvjvag0ElQ1qhl34to1_500.jpg tumblr_lvk5ag0Sf81r0pbjoo1_500.jpg we2421g.png tumblr_lvi2foKX6E1qc0tt0o1_400.jpg tumblr_lvi2foKX6E1qc0tt0o2_400.jpg tumblr_lvi2foKX6E1qc0tt0o3_400.jpg tumblr_lvjypckx2z1qdw0vco2_1280.png tumblr_lvjypckx2z1qdw0vco1_250.png 2d6sw.jpg|Brittana showing Hitch Michael the TT Survivor mash-up|linktext=Brittana showing Hitch Michael the TT Surviver mash-up Tumblr lvlp3ntehU1qm0ti1 r1 frame1.jpg 106px-Glee Competitions.jpg|Rachel flashes back on these competitions in this episode. She cries since she cannot compete. tumblr_lvlp5eMgpG1qgj2upo1_500.jpg tumblr_lvsvojSkoF1qm11jlo1_400.png 382962_10150449501182044_55482772043_8524449_258795979_a.jpg|Behind the scense 383925_10150449501037044_55482772043_8524446_727716274_a.jpg|Behind the scenes 385077_10150449501132044_55482772043_8524448_647052535_a.jpg 387246_10150449501232044_55482772043_8524450_154857480_a.jpg 390660_10150449501097044_55482772043_8524447_1979708547_a.jpg whatiswrongwithyou.png TTSIWS2.png TTSIWS.png TinaHOTS.png ShelbyHOTS.png SebastianHOTS.png SantanaSIWS.png SantanaHOTS.png SantanaBrittanySIWS.png SamRSC2.png SamRSC.png SamHOTS2.png SamHOTS.png RachelHOTS.png QuinnTinaRSC.png QuinnHOTS3.png QuinnHOTS2.png QuinnHOTS.png MercedesSugarSIWS.png MercedesHOTS.png MercdesSIWS.png KurtRSC.png KurtHOTS.png HarmonyBA6.png HarmonyBA5.png HarmonyBA4.png HarmonyBA3.png HarmonyBA2.png HarmonyBA.png FinnRSC.png BlaineHOTS3.png BlaineHOTS2.png BlaineHOTS.png ArtieRSC.png TTWAY.png TinaABC.png SantanaWAY.png SamQuinnWAY.png SamMITM.png RachelWAY.png QuinnHOTS4.png QuinnC.png PuckMITM.png NDMITM.png NDC.png NDABC2.png NDABC.png MikeTinaHOTS.png MikeHOTS.png MikeABC.png MercedesHOTS3.png MercedesHOTS2.png KurtTinaABC.png KurtABC.png HarmonyHOTS.png FinnWAY.png FinnMITM.png BlaineSamC.png BlaineMITM.png BlaineC2.png BlaineC.png ArtieMITM.png ArtieC.png tumblr_lxhsdxcpfG1qku8pqo1_500.png RORYSOLOCUP.png Controljump.png|New Directions preforming at Sectionals|linktext=Sectional Preformance Videos Navigational Category:Episodes Category:Season Three Episodes